Recent Coverage

By Peter Goffin
November 20, 2017 | The Canadian Press
TORONTO - Uber Canada has launched a new policy on how its drivers deal with customers who have service animals, but some disability rights advocates say exemptions built into the rules could still lead to discrimination.
The company's policy says drivers who refuse to give rides to customers with service animals will be dismissed.
But drivers could get an exemption if they provide Uber with "written evidence, like a doctor's or cleric's letter ... confirming that they belong to a group protected by human ...

CTV News | November 7, 2017
A legal challenge to Quebec's legislation banning face coverings has been filed.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association are challenging Bill 62 as a violation of the constitution.
The Muslim woman challenging the lawsuit, Marie-Michelle Lacoste, argues that the law which is supposed to provide a level playing field for religious neutrality, actually creates a difficult burden for those who wish to abide by the tenets of their religion.
Her lawyers are asking for the courts to block ...

These violations cannot be justified in Quebec's free and democratic society,' plaintiffs say
By Benjamin Shingler
CBC News | November 7, 2017
Civil liberties advocates have launched a legal challenge over the constitutionality of Quebec's face-covering ban, arguing it "directly infringes on the freedom of religion of individuals."
The law passed last month requires people to uncover their face to receive public services under certain circumstances.
The legal challenge, filed Tuesday in Quebec Superior Court, contests a section of the province's religious ...

By Graeme Hamilton
National Post | October 20, 2017
MONTREAL — After a gunman killed six worshippers inside a Quebec City mosque in January, the outpouring of support for the Muslim community was immediate. The attack would be “a turning point” in the strained relationship between Quebec and its Muslim minority, Premier Philippe Couillard promised.
“Let us think about Quebecers of the Muslim faith, our fellow citizens,” Couillard said at a vigil the night after the attack. “It must be said again: We are all Quebecers. The whole world is watching us.”...

By Natalie Stechyson
Huffington Post Canada | October 19, 2017
As a new Quebec law that will force Muslim women to uncover their faces before they can ride the bus is being denounced by human rights groups and politicians, a handful of Canadian women are posting pointed selfies to show their own condemnation.
The Quebec government passed Bill 62 Wednesday, which bans Muslim women who wear a niqab or burqa from obtaining government services — including public transportation — without showing their faces. The bill infringes on the religious freedom of Quebecers, ...

By Graeme Hamilton
National Post | October 18, 2017
MONTREAL – Niqab-wearing Quebec women who want to ride the bus, visit the library, go for a medical check-up or meet with their child’s teacher are now legally required to uncover their faces while receiving provincial and municipal government services.
Quebec’s National Assembly adopted Bill 62 Wednesday morning, a controversial law that is the Liberal government’s answer to a decade-long debate over the accommodation of religious minorities in the province.
The bill passed despite opposition from the ...

By Ingrid Peritz
The Globe & Mail | October 18, 2017
Quebec has adopted a law forcing people to show their faces when obtaining services such as taking a city bus, pushing through controversial legislation that is being criticized as discriminatory against Muslim Canadians.
Bill 62, which the province's Justice Minister describes as a North American first, requires one's face to be uncovered when giving or receiving public services. The law marks the outcome of a contentious discussion about the place of religious minorities in Quebec.
Details of how the law ...

By Sonja Puzic
CTV News | October 17, 2017
The Quebec National Assembly will begin debating a controversial bill on Tuesday, that would ban face coverings for public servants and anyone who receives public services.
If passed, Bill 62 would prohibit public workers, including doctors and teachers, from wearing niqabs, burkas or any other face coverings.
Amendments to the bill introduced last summer also extend the ban to people receiving municipal services, including public transit. That could mean a woman wearing a niqab, for example, would not be able to ride a ...

By Allan Woods
Toronto Star | October 16, 2017
MONTREAL — After a decade-long debate about the place of religion in a secular society, Quebec is set to pass a law that would bar public servants from wearing face coverings and oblige ordinary citizens to unveil when seeking access to government services.
The proposed law has been vigorously opposed by Muslim advocacy groups in the province who say that it will unfairly target women who wear Islamic face coverings such as the niqab, which leaves only the eyes uncovered.
“A woman with five children who wears ...

By Michelle Shephard
Toronto Star | October 11, 2017
RCMP officers have been screening Muslim refugee claimants entering from the U.S. at Quebec’s Roxham Rd. crossing, asking how they feel about women who do not wear the hijab, how many times they pray, and their opinion about the Taliban and the Islamic State, a questionnaire obtained by the Star shows.
The 41 questions appear to specifically target Muslims, as no other religious practices are mentioned, nor terrorist groups with non-Muslim members.
Refugee lawyers representing the more than 12,000 men, women ...